Father pulls child from camp after alleging mistreatment at Polk YMCA summer program

By Taylor Thompson

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    TRYON, North Carolina (WLOS) — A local father spoke with News13 and claimed that his daughter was mistreated at a YMCA summer camp that was being hosted at Tryon Elementary School.

He said his daughter and other campers were shot with water pellet guns known as Orbeez guns.

This father, who wished to remain anonymous, said he’s sent his child to the Polk County YMCA Summer Camp for many years, and it has always been a great experience until now.

“The first thing that she brought to our attention was coming home from camp one day complaining about how she was so sore that she was literally in tears,” he said.

He said his daughter then started telling him about this boot camp that he had not heard anything about.

“(There were an) insane amount of workouts and pushups and jumping jacks and all these different things they were being forced to do,” he said.

He said they were obviously concerned after hearing this and started to talk to other parents whose kids were going to this camp and that’s when they learned about the Orbeez guns.

At that point, he said they decided to go to the camp and pull his daughter out. He said that they walked into the camp and saw no adults around, only pre-teen and teenage camp counselors.

He said that the environment did not look right to be a kids camp.

“They had the lights off. There were kids kind of laying on the ground. It was a weird environment, very uncomfortable, playing loud music that in my opinion was not appropriate for a children’s camp,” he said.

“There were countless water bottles and cups filled with these beads that they were priming up to use. They were on site and being used even when we were there,” he said.

He said they found an adult on the school premise and at that point began to receive kickback from the camp staff.

“They admitted that they knew that they were there. They didn’t see a problem with it when I spoke with them at first, and that counselors were just supposed to be using them to fight each other on the playground,” he said.

The father said that Tryon Police Department was called. News 13 spoke with the Tryon Police chief, who confirmed this. The chief said that they responded to the camp after they received a call from staff claiming that the concerned parent was there causing problems.

Police said they found no problems with the parent, but that they’re not actively investigating this and that any issues the parent has has to be taken up with the YMCA.

The father said after they got home from the camp, he asked his daughter about the Orbeez guns.

“She admitted that these guns had been pointed at her. She had been shot she guessed about eight times,” he said.

He said he has a lot of emotion thinking about this entire situation, and that it’s something that no one ever thinks about having to deal with firsthand.

“I just don’t want anybody else’s kids to have to deal with this. There’s a lot of parents just like we were three days ago who have absolutely no clue that any of this is happening,” he said.

The YMCA released the following statement:

“We were recently made aware of an alleged incident involving counselors using Orbeez guns at camp. While no campers were harmed by the water pellet guns, they should not have been brought on site. Following our investigation into these allegations, there have been staffing changes at YMCA camp at Tryon Elementary School.”

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